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On the Trail of Istanbul's Elusive Grilled Intestine King
Courtesy of Istanbul Eats
The Willy Wonka of Kokorec
Istanbul is probably one of the few cities in the world where a person armed with little more than pluck, a tuxedo and a set of four-foot-long skewers can build an empire out of selling grilled intestines (or kokorec, as they are called in Turkish). That is the story of Vahap Usta, a nattily dressed Turkish culinary entrepreneur who, starting with a single food cart in the heart of old Istanbul, went on to own a mini kingdom of some 33 stands selling kokorec and drive around town in a white Mercedes. After peaking in the 1990's, though, the legendary Vahap Usta somehow lost it all and ended up disappearing from Istanbul's culinary scene.
That is, until now. Istanbul Eats recently caught up with what they describe as the "Willy Wonka of kokorec," finding him once again slinging intestines dressed in his trademark tuxedo and trying to make a new start with a new cart in one of Istanbul's tonier neighborhoods. From their report:
The legend of Vahap Usta lives on in Facebook pages (“Vahap Usta Neredesin?/Where are you Vahap Usta?” asks one) and through claims of recent sightings and nostalgic blog posts of encounters long past. But for quite a while no one seemed to know what exactly happened to the kokoreç King himself. Our attention was brought to this story by friend and fellow trencherman Salih abi, author of the great food blog Harbi Yiyorum. We followed false leads for a year before we finally found Vahap Usta, working at his kokoreç counter on a commercial strip in the Sisli neighborhood.
So what happened to Vahap Usta? He sighed and removed his reading glasses, which, we noticed, were missing one arm. “Nobody can lose money the way I can. It is an art form,” he said flashing a grin. Though he says that he was the first to grill long thick rolls of kokoreç over coals as a street food, we’ve found evidence to the contrary. And there is no way to verify the claim that he sold around 12,000 kokoreç sandwiches and a truckful of ayran every day from his cart, because, like many things about Vahap Usta, his books are not available for review.
The full story, including the address where the kokorec king is located, can be found here.
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